High School Wrestling: Tahar Ferradji's improvement helping to lead Methacton

WORCESTER — Last season, Tahar Ferradji was a sophomore just getting his feet wet on varsity for the Methacton Warriors. As is the case with pretty much any wrestler that is still a little green getting his first taste of varsity, Ferradji experienced some growing pains, starting his season 2-9. However, Ferradji showed promise and continued to improve as the season progressed, notching several impressive pins and ultimately finishing the season 12-21 with nine falls.

This season, after putting in the offseason work necessary for the grueling sport, Ferradji has begun fulfilling that promise, already surpassing his win total from a year ago and quickly becoming a key part of the Warrior’s upper weight core, which is a big strength for the team.

According to Ferradji, it is because of that vein of talent that runs through Methacton’s upper weight classes that he has been able to improve so much this season, where his record currently rests at a more than respectable 13-3 with six pins.

And that help goes beyond just the wrestling room, as Ferradji said he and Green hit the weight room hard in the offseason to ensure that neither wrestler would be out-muscled over the course of the season.

“(A lot of the work) is outside of practice. We usually lift together,” he explained.

However, make no mistake, for all the time and hard work that Ferradji and the other wrestlers put in outside of the wrestling room, those wrestlers put in just as much time and effort inside the wrestling room, constantly working with each and making each other better.

For Ferradji, it is especially helpful to be able to roll around on the mats with two of the top upper weights in District 1, with Baccaro currently ranked fourth at 182 and Green ranked third at 285.

“(Practice) is definitely full-force,” he said. “I think that if we all work hard with people that we wrestle with, we’ll all get better as a group.”

Based on results so far this season, the “full-force” practices and work in the weight room has pushed Ferradji into elite company in the PAC-10, where his 13 wins rank near top of the 220-pound weight class, trailing only Boyertown’s freshman phenom Jordan Wood and Pottsgrove sophomore Pat Finn.

Based on the incredible improvement shown by Ferradji this season, improving on his fourth-place finish at sectionals and quick exit the following weekend at districts seems likely. However, he’s not thinking about personal glory and is focused only on putting the Warriors in the best possible place to win by both going out and winning his matches and by helping his teammates improve so that they can win theirs.

“I just go in (to each match) thinking that I have to do the best that I can for the team, no matter what the score is.”